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3) Spain reconfirms what movements in the US like @TenantFed and @latenantsunion have been saying for years: the fight for tenant power is one of the central struggles of our time, and organized labor and progressive organizations of all kinds should be paying attention.

2) Politicians won’t save us. In Spain, political failure is forcing the people to take action into their own hands. Regional governments controlled by the right as well as the national, progressive government are all scrambling thanks to a crisis forced by organized tenants.

Spanish tenants are charting a path to fight back against real estate speculation. We take 3 lessons. 1) these mass mobilizations are being led by tenants unions with *existing* infrastructure articulating clear demands. We must organize at local, portfolio & national levels.

Now, Maricarmen’s tragic passing—precipitated by the stress and trauma of a violent eviction—has galvanized the demands of Spanish tenants to bring speculation to a halt. Tenant unions, labor unions & community groups are coming together to call a GENERAL STRIKE on November 11th.

In the U.S., short-term rentals, landlords, realtors, and financial institutions are turning our cities into sites of speculation. The result is skyrocketing rents and mass evictions. Same story. We've lost 6 MILLION units of low-rent housing over the last decade alone.

In Spain and Portugal, this means rents skyrocket far above median salaries in Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon etc Real estate speculators + corporate landlords + unchecked tourism business cannibalizes housing for short-term rentals like Airbnb. The US is no stranger to this crisis.

Vulture investors have made immense profits by speculating on housing stocks. The tactics are often the same: buy existing housing, harass + evict tenants, put that housing *back* on the market at a much higher price. It's cyclical — with the same results: unaffordable housing.

Let's just say it plainly. We *have* to name real estate speculators as exactly who is exacerbating the various housing crises worldwide. In Spain, one landlord, Urbagestión, evicted Maricarmen, who was organized by the tenant union in Madrid, @InquilinatoMadrid.

The death of Maricarmen—the 87-year-old woman in Spain whose eviction sparked nationwide uprising—shows you exactly why the housing crisis around the world is literally a matter of life and death. We think the U.S. has a few lessons to learn from tenant mobilization in Spain.

Has your servicer sent you something you don't understand? Has the Department of Education sent you conflicting information? Did the agent on the phone tell you one thing when the other agent said another? Did something wrong happen when you tried switching payment plans?

If you have federal or private student loans, there is probably a lot going on in your world right now. Deadlines are changing. Repayment plans are shifting. Emails are being sent. Balances due. Amid all this change are errors and confusion. A lot. We want to hear from you.

They don't understand capitalized interest — where the interest gets added to the principal and you pay interest on the interest. They don't understand your balance balloons after you default. They don't understand the interest rate being at 13%. They don't understand how student loans work.

These responses are quite common because folks truly just don't understand the student debt crisis — which is part of the reason the movement needs stronger champions. They don't understand how much debt you have to take on to be a physician, lawyer or even teacher.

$429,000. $367,000. $501,933. We should not have a system in which Americans cannot decipher whether these numbers represent the price of a home or a student loan balance.

What happened at Cornell was not an anomaly — those boys just got caught. When we talk about College For All, it can't just be about free tuition. We need an end to rape culture and the universities that allow it to persist.

Is it possible that when someone enrolls in a new plan on Tuesday, the system doesn't understand that decision on Wednesday? Probably. Maybe? Nobody knows. The entire process is confusing. Agents on the phone can't answer questions. The entire system doesn't speak to itself.

One of our members picked a new student debt plan to join yesterday, according to their deadline. Today, they got a notification saying they’ll be put into a “new repayment plan.” Is the “new” plan the same plan as yesterday? Or is the “new” plan a NEW new plan? Nobody knows.